The White House said Monday that President Joe Biden still has no plans to travel to eastern Palestine, Ohio, even though he promised to visit the site of the derailment of the train.
“I have nothing to share on a planned visit by the president,” said press attaché Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked about it during her press briefing.
Biden said last week he would visit the area, which suffered a toxic chemical spill after the train crash and faces a lengthy cleanup, at “some point.”
“I’ve spoken with all the officials in Ohio, Democrats and Republicans, on an ongoing basis,” Biden told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats, asking if he would surrender. “We will be there at some point.”
But no trip has been announced.
Biden’s administration, particularly Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has been heavily criticized for being slow to respond to the crash.
It has been 31 days since 5,000 people were forced to evacuate and tens of thousands of animals died after a The Norfolk Southern train derailed and spilled hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, ground and water around the small Ohio community.
In the weeks that followed, authorities undertook a massive clean-up operation.
More than 700 tons of contaminated soil and nearly two million gallons of liquid have been collected from the derailment site, Ohio officials said, and much remains to be cleaned up under Environmental Protection orders. Agency.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, pushed Biden to visit eastern Palestine.
“He should come, there’s no doubt about it,” DeWine said in an interview with Fox News. “The president must come. People want to see the president. He should be there.
Cleanup continues in eastern Palestine, Ohio after a train derailment spilled hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water
“I have nothing to share on a planned visit by the president,” said press attaché Karine Jean-Pierre when questioned on this subject during her press briefing.
Buttigieg became the administration’s scapegoat and became defensive about his agency’s response.
He traveled to eastern Palestine on February 23 – 20 days after the accident.
Former President Donald Trump had visited a day earlier, where he accused the Biden administration of “indifference and betrayal” towards the community.
Buttigieg admitted to CNN on Monday that he should have come earlier. But he said his conservative critics were feigning outrage for the town of 4,700 people where the median household income is $46,000.
He called Trump’s visit “somewhat infuriating – to see someone who has tried very hard to gut not only rail safety regulations, but also the EPA, which is the main thing between this community and a loss.” total responsibility for Norfolk Southern, then show up giving away bottled water and campaign spoils?
The Feb. 3 derailment sent dozens of railcars — some carrying a total of 1.6 million pounds of hazardous chemicals — off the tracks in the town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
Five tank cars contained nearly 900,000 pounds of vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic industrial chemical that has been linked to liver damage at high levels of exposure.
The derailment caused a fire that lasted several days. Firefighters used more than a million gallons of water to fight the flames, which also contributed to soil contamination.
A giant plume of smoke from the incident could be seen miles away
The chemicals on board the train were vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, residual benzene, glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene.
Last week, Biden ordered officials to go door-to-door in eastern Palestine asking residents to fill out surveys amid fears of an emerging public health crisis.
The EPA gave residents the green light to return home, and independent testing confirmed those findings.
But residents expressed frustration with state and federal officials and a Norfolk Southern representative at a town hall meeting last week.
Owners have complained of numerous medical issues, including eye and skin irritation, nausea, and headaches.
The decision to do a controlled burn to help with cleanup has raised concerns among residents about being exposed to high levels of vinyl chloride, a colorless gas that burns easily and is associated with an increased risk of several cancers, including cancers of the brain, liver and lung. .
